#i would elaborate more but there's still a lot of ironing out and names i need to figure out before i feel like i can articulate things

[ichorblossoms]

the more i write and think about the plot of honeybee the more i realize that grimm's past keeps coming back to affect the present and it's not as separate from the plot as i initially thought it was going to be. didn't quite intend for it to be a story about remaking oneself and carrying on while bearing the marks left on you by others but i guess it kinda is now...?

[kagooleo]

so with confidence I present my rarepair...fluffyriceshipping!

they were originally a joke ship (which was my last chance to get out) but they grew on me more and more throughout last year, and months later they've become my favorite pair to draw! their name was the funniest thing to make of them because i got to joke around with their jpn names

the tl:dr of them is that there's a lot of good drama to make of thirty-somethings with the weight of responsibility of their respective cultures on their shoulders, as well as their personal thoughts of the trainers of their respective regions, all this culminating together to be really compelling for me to develop, so I'll ramble a Whole lot more under the cut about them :D!!

~

ok now that the people that wanted to see more about what i'm crazy about when i'm not online are here you guys better prepare for the worddump lmao

before they meet its postgame and they’re both in their thirties (early to mid), lance post gsc/hgss still upholds his champion position and managing the dragon's den alongside any g-man/undercover rocket work on the side (in workaholic mode), riley post dppt is occasionally battling at the battleground but also holing himself up with patrols on iron island and doing egg research and training his aura (Also in workaholic mode)

i'd say all the work makes byron and roark try to get him a break from all that, convincing him at some point to take a vacation! see the sights my guy you've been workin yourself to the bone

it's canonically shown in hgss that riley does appear as a partner for the battle tower, so at some point he is in johto! the region resonates with his cultural sensibilities so maybe he revisits it again to instead actually relax there.

lance would probably catch his hat flying away when he's visiting elm's lab (a fellow egg researcher) in new bark and riley would have absolutely fell first for him (and i'm a sucker for meet-cutes,,,)

and from there they hit it off! being both skilled trainers in their own right they battle and go out to eat after and talk about their family (clair and the elders, for riley's case his family friends byron and roark), their culture (dragon clans and aura guardians), and then when they talk about their respective trainer kiddos (silver and dawn) something clicks between them (it’s a Really rough snippet but hopefully it’s decent)-

"Do you have any kids? I know the news loves to make up some kind of story about secret love affairs with a random person." the guardian says, awkwardly.

Lance smiles, "Oh, yeah! I have one but he's technically not mine." Riley chokes on his iced tea.

"I'm sorry?" A million thoughts roll through his mind as he processes his words said so matter-of-factly.

"Haha, sorry, sorry, I'm only partly joking."

"E-Elaborate..."

The champion explains the general gist of things as he's met him, Silver, his kid-by-odd-circumstance, was homeless for a while, but was training alongside some other up and coming trainers. Uncovering some Rocket related files, he learns he's the son of the boss of the entire organization, and after some on and off meetings he eventually got him a place to stay at the Dragon's Den, and soon after began living with him at his place when he warmed up to the idea of adoption.

There are times he gets overwhelmed with all that he's been through, and some nights its all too much. But Lance was there with him, stayed with him every step of the way, unlike the one who gave him that abandonment anxiety in the first place.

"He's my kid, not by blood, and maybe not by his family, either. But instead, by his own decision he chose to stay with me. I'd want him to keep the freedom he has now." Lance states, firmly. "And now he's grown up as strong as I believed he could. I'm proud of him, as much as he tends to deny that." Riley senses his draconic aura swell with pride, mixed with a humbling sincerity in his words.

"What about you? Any kids of your own?" the sudden flip of the question surprises the guardian briefly.

"N-Nothing adoptive but…I suppose it's similar, in a way to meeting them as you have."

The guardian's turn, now. Dawn was someone he met when he was training on Iron Island, and also served as a guide to get her through the caverns. When he felt something off in the aura surrounding the area, he eventually learned of Galactic causing the pokemon on the island to feel restless and agitated. With her, they were able to clear the island of their antics and even gifted her a Riolu egg on her journey. From there, he was impressed with how strong she was, and did hear from Cynthia that she raised his present up to evolving her into a Lucario. He couldn't have been happier.

That was the case, until he caught the aftermath of the events of Mt. Coronet.

What Cyrus did, the lengths he'd go to, and dragging the both of them into a mess that could have torn the world apart.

After that, Dawn stayed home for a while. Cynthia put him as a contact for her mom, who was really worried for her. With his aura and her friends, Lucas and Barry, they were a big help for her recovery. And eventually, after a lot of time and work, she became the region's champion. She messages every now and then to him, as processing any trauma is never an easy road, but he realized how lucky she was to have the people she'd met to keep her steady, and knew she'll be alright.

"I...still wish I could've done more for her," Riley says, quieter. "Cynthia told me about what happened in that other world, and it...it was a lot for Dawn, a lot of emotions to help her figure out." he finishes, sheepish.

"…I don't blame you for feeling that way, I wouldn't know what to do in a scenario like that, either." the champion says, unsure too.

"It's amazing, in a way. All these kids going through so much on their own. I'd be proud were it not so scary, realizing how young they are to go through what they have been through."

"There's only so much you really can do, as an adult. I've realized that fact a long time ago." Lance's aura felt oddly melancholic, as bright and pretty as it may appear. "It's either immediate or slow when things change for them, and sometimes you'll have to make a choice on the spot when the time comes for them to decide what they want to do." It sounds like he’s speaking from experience, but the melancholy makes it appear that he's had some regrets.

“I trust in them to find their own path, eventually. When they’re together, those kids are gonna be alright on their own.”

His reassurance helped, even if only by a small amount.

-

I should make some kind of master post about them at some point but WAH god I’m so happy I can actually put them together in pokemon masters, they’ve really grown on me and I’ve developed a lot for the both of them in my free time, but yeah this is the rarepair that’s been on my brain for ages now, a gaze into my goo brain 🤪

[icarusignite]

Hey Autor,

Could you maybe make a Reader Velaryon/Targaryen x Cregan stark?

The reader is the daughter of Rhaenyra and Laenor (the real father is Daemon Targaryen) and the eldest child of Rhaenyra and the heiress of the iron throne.The reader is sent to the Starks at the age of 14 to live with them for some time (no idea what reason there might be). Cregan doesn’t like the reader at first and is mean to her.At some point, the two get closer and fall in love. Maybe just kisses could arise between them no more. After she was with the Starks for some time, one day a lord comes with his daughter maybe Alysanne Blackwood and her father. Because Cregan is engaged to her and should marry her soon,He never told the reader that he was promised to someone else and the reader gets angry. Cregan wants to talk to her but she ignores him. Cregan does not take action against the wedding and marries Alysanne. Alysanne notices that the reader is angry and and provoke her. reader says goodbye to Lord and Lady stark, While Cregan spends time with Alyssane to get to know her. Reader flies home on her dragon because she doesn’t want to be at the wedding. After years, a war in the north has broken out and seems to be lost. Rhaenyra sends the reader and Jace to the north to help the Starks and end the war with their dragons. Cregan has a child with alysanne (but she should still be alive please.) She's still bitter and full of anger. Maybe the two could have a happy ending because Cregan really loved the reader, he didn’t want to hurt her, but it’s called a stark doesn’t break an oath. Of course, the reader does not forgive him directly and makes him feel her anger.

Please a lot of drama, I love big drama.

I am sorry for my English.

Your reader.

Ps: I wrote this request to another author but I don't know if he wants to write it so I wanted to write to you again because I always love your writing 🫶

Cregan Stark x fem! reader (no use of y/n)

Word Count: 4.6K

Summary: The five times you told Cregan Stark you hated him, and the one time you actually meant it.

A/N: Hey heyyyy, lol I'm finally back. I'm soo soo sorry this took forever to put out, I've been suffering from massive writer's block and I lowkey feel like my house of the dragon hyperfixation was over for a while so I wasn't feeling too motivated to work on related stuff. Anyway, hope you like what I've done with the premise. Lots of drama but I didn't really see there being a happy end where they actually get together lol. As usual, I love your requests and asks so feel free to send in more (I shall try to get them done in a more timely manner T_T)

I hate you I love you

1. At first sight

Being the oldest daughter of Rhaenyra Targaryen and future heir to the Iron Throne meant that you were seldom allowed to follow your heart's desire. You were simply a pawn in the grand elaborate game of life, fit to be moved around wherever someone saw fit. You didn't have much of a say when your mother named you her heir, you didn't have a say when she decided that you would be sent to be fostered at Winterfell for a few years for some reason you could not fathom, and you certainly would not have a say when you would be married off to whatever lord would serve the greatest political advantage. 

You first met the dark-haired boy that was Cregan Stark at the impressionable young age of fourteen, and you were quite intimidated. There was something in his eyes, their steely grey reminding you of an icy winter storm. His uncle, Lord Bennard, currently ruled the north as regent and you could tell that relations were tense between the two of them.

Lord Brennard had led you into the Great Hall, where the fire roared in the hearth, casting flickering shadows on the walls. There, standing near the hearth, was a young man of sixteen, with a stony expression, his eyes fixed on the flames. Lord Brennard cleared his throat, and the young man turned to look at them.

"Princess, may I introduce you to my nephew, Cregan Stark," Lord Brennard said with a polite smile.

Cregan regarded you with a cold, distant gaze, his demeanour as frosty as the land outside. He didn't extend a hand or offer a greeting. Instead, he simply nodded, his lips pressed into a thin line, making it clear that he would rather be anywhere else but there.

If you were unhappy with his offputting behaviour, you made no show of it. Your mother had schooled you in the proper etiquette of being a gracious young lady and you extended your hand gracefully. 

"It's a pleasure to meet you, my lord."

Cregan's response was curt, "Likewise." 

He then turned his attention back to the fire, seemingly disinterested in your presence.

Lord Brennard, ever the diplomat, tried to initiate conversation. 

"Cregan, the princess has travelled a long way to be here. Perhaps you could show her around Winterfell, and introduce her to some of your companions?"

Cregan sighed audibly and finally tore his gaze away from the flames, "Do I have to, Uncle?"

Lord Brennard's expression tightened slightly, but he remained patient, "It would be a kind gesture, Cregan. She's a guest in our home."

You smiled politely, doing your best to break through the young lord's cold exterior, "I would appreciate it greatly. I've heard so much about Winterfell, and I'd love to get to know the people who live here."

Cregan rolled his eyes but eventually relented with a reluctant nod.

"Fine, I'll show you around, but don't expect me to be your tour guide."

"Thank you. I promise not to be a bother," you grinned now, willing him to at least return some of your warmth. 

Cregan's tour of Winterfell was far from what you had imagined. He led you through the castle's corridors and courtyards with long, determined strides, leaving you to struggle to keep up. Your gown, designed for the elegant strolls through the castles of the Red Keep and Dragonstone, was ill-suited for the rugged terrain and brisk pace Cregan set.

"My lord, please, may we slow down?" you called out, your voice slightly breathless. Your soft leather shoes were ill-equipped for the uneven stone floors, and your dress hampered your every step.

Cregan barely spared you a glance, his impatience evident in his voice, "We don't have all day, Princess. You wanted a tour, didn't you?"

You pressed on, determined not to let Cregan's demeanour ruin your first day at Winterfell. You struggled to maintain your composure, but your frustration was building. 

"Yes, but I didn't expect it to be a race. Could you at least wait for me?"

Cregan halted abruptly, turning to face you with a roll of his eyes, "Didn't you promise not to be a bother?"

Your cheeks flushed with embarrassment and frustration. You had hoped for a warmer welcome, but it seemed Cregan was determined to make you feel like an unwanted guest. 

"I did, but I didn't realize being polite was such a bother."

Cregan let out an exasperated sigh, and for a moment, you thought he might storm off and leave you behind. Instead, he begrudgingly slowed his pace, allowing you to catch up.

"Fine, let's get on with it."

As you continued the tour, Cregan pointed out various parts of Winterfell with curt explanations, still making no effort to engage in polite conversation. You did your best to show interest and appreciation for the castle's history and architecture, but it was clear that Cregan was not interested in your company.

Later that evening, the dinner at Winterfell was a formal affair, and despite the grandeur of the feast laid out, Cregan continued to be rude and dismissive towards you. He barely acknowledged your presence, and when you attempted to engage in conversation with other members of the Stark household, he would interrupt with snide comments or pointedly change the subject. The tension in the room was palpable, and you could feel the disapproving glances of some of the Stark bannermen who were clearly not pleased with the arrangement. You couldn't blame them though; you were an outsider, and Cregan's hostility toward you only made matters worse.

Eventually, you had had enough. After the meal, when you found yourselves alone in the corridor leading to your chambers, you turned to him, frustration boiling over after hours of having kept it simmering under your skin. 

"My lord, may I ask you something?"

Cregan raised an eyebrow, his icy demeanour unchanged, "I don't suppose you'd desist if I refused?"

That was it. Your final breaking point. 

"Why are you determined to be so fucking impolite to me?" your voice exploded, echoing in the empty corridor. 

Cregan's eyes widened, surprised at your use of profanities no doubt. 

Without stopping for a breath, you continued your torrent of complaints, "I understand that you didn't want me here, but have you perhaps considered that I didn't want to leave my home either? I didn't have a say in this, just like you, so if I can muster up the courage to try and hold on to a shred of hopefulness about this whole situation, can't you at least try to be civil to me? You're older than me, after all. Or do you not have the emotional maturity to not be a fucking menace to people you've judged in your head before even getting to know them."

Cregan regarded your outburst with his usual cold indifference, and you felt yourself deflate. Perhaps you had gone too far. Insulting a lord in his home was not proper behaviour befitting a young lady but you would be lying if you said that it didn't bring you a little satisfaction to see the slight cracks in Cregan's composure. There was a glimmer of something else in his eyes as well—a flicker of respect, perhaps. After a long, uncomfortable silence, he finally let out a sigh, seemingly relenting and his eyes softened, almost too imperceptibly.

"Fine," he said grudgingly, his tone suggesting that he was far from genuine. "I apologize if my behaviour has offended you, Princess."

He tacked on the Princess at the end of his sentence, almost as an afterthought and the mockery in it only made the fire in your eyes blaze brighter. You opened your mouth to say something else but Cregan raised his hands placatingly. 

"No, no. I am truly sorry for my behaviour. I had my reasons but I will not give you excuses," he chuckled. "Although I must admit, I did not expect you capable...of that."

Your ears flushed crimson and you ducked your head in embarrassment.

"I hate you Cregan Stark," you mumbled under your breath but when you looked up to see his arrogantly cocked eyebrow and knowing smirk, you realized you did not quite mean it with the intensity he deserved. 

2. Deep in the godswood

One crisp, sunny morning, the two of you found yourselves in the godswood of Winterfell, surrounded by the ancient trees with their solemn faces carved into the bark. You had decided to engage in a rare moment of playfulness, and the game you had chosen was a simple one—tag.

Cregan, always quick and agile, took the first turn as the pursuer. He sprinted after you, his laughter echoing through the godswood. After a few months at Winterfell, you were no longer the delicate princess you once were, and you ran with surprising grace.

As you weaved between the towering trees, the thrill of the chase engulfed you. You darted around a tree, hoping to outmaneuver Cregan, but he was relentless. With a burst of speed, he lunged forward and tagged you, causing you to stumble.

Your foot caught on a root, and you tumbled to the ground with a cry of surprise. You had landed on the soft moss beneath the tree, your dress stained with mud and leaves. You scowled and glanced up at Cregan, who stood over you, victorious and unapologetic.

"You cheated," you accused your voice a mix of irritation and laughter.

Cregan grinned mischievously, "All's fair in love and war, Princess."

You couldn't help but chuckle despite your fall. You pushed yourself up onto your elbows, your gaze meeting Cregan's. 

"Well, we must be at war then, my lord, for I see no love here in this godswood."

"Oh is that so?" Cregan's eyes twinkled and he watched you in a way that made your ears flush again. 

"I fucking hate you!" you declared, trying to force a scowl on your face.

Cregan's expression softened, and he reached out his hand to help you up. As you looked into his eyes, something shifted within you. You realized that your declaration of hatred was no longer true if it ever had been.

You accepted Cregan's hand, allowing him to pull you to your feet and into him. Your gaze met his, and there was a brief moment where something bright and electric sparked between the two of you. 

Cregan smiled and winked, breaking the soft moment. 

"Let's watch our language, Princess. And don't try to lie to me, I know you better than that."

"Oh, you know nothing at all, my lord."

3. Once upon a fairytale

The ball at Winterfell was a rare and enchanting event, one that had not been held in years. The Great Hall had been transformed into a dazzling spectacle, with chandeliers glittering from the ceiling and banners of House Stark adorning the walls. The air in Winterfell had been doing you wonders and you had grown even more radiant in the past year. Your presence drew the attention of many young lords from noble houses across the North.

You were quickly approached by eager suitors the moment you stepped into the hall, and they approached you with polished manners and flattering words, hoping for a chance to dance with a royal princess. Cregan, watching from the shadows, felt a pang of jealousy as he saw one lord after another try their luck with you, often stumbling over their words in their haste.

In response to their requests, you smiled politely and declined each invitation with a gracious nod. Your eyes, however, never strayed far from Cregan, who it seemed had taken up a dance with another lady—a striking brunette with a winsome smile. 

Finally, when the music shifted to a slower, more intimate melody, Cregan finished his dance and made his way towards you. He extended his hand with a charming smile. 

"Princess, may I have this dance?"

Your response was less than warm. You raised an eyebrow and looked at him with mock annoyance. 

"Oh, my lord, how kind of you to finally grace me with your presence. I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me."

Cregan's smirk was mischievous as he took your hand, "Forgotten about you? Never, my lady."

As you began to dance, the tension between the two of you was palpable. Your voice was hushed as you spoke, your irritation clear. 

"You've been dancing with other ladies all night. I thought you weren't interested in me."

Cregan leaned in closer, his breath ghosting across your throat, "Jealous, are we?"

Your cheeks flushed.

"No," you replied, trying to remain nonchalant, but your tone betrayed your true feelings. "I just thought you were ignoring me."

"Sounds like jealousy to me."

You rolled your eyes, "I hate you, Cregan Stark."

Cregan's eyes twinkled with amusement as he spun you gracefully across the floor, "You don't."

You opened your mouth to protest, but Cregan brought your hand to his lips and placed a gentle kiss on the back of it. The touch sent a shiver down your spine, and your breath immediately caught in your throat, rendering you speechless.

Cregan held your gaze, his eyes filled with a fierce intensity. 

"No, you don't," he repeated softly as if daring you to deny it.

4. Slowly, and then all at once

Throughout the next grand feast, Cregan couldn't resist cracking teasing jokes at your expense, each one playful but not cruel, designed only to elicit merriment. His quips were met with laughter and amusement from the other lords and ladies, you felt annoyed being his topic of discussion that evening.

After the dinner finally concluded, you could take no more. You caught Cregan by the arm as he was about to leave the hall and dragged him away to an isolated hallway. Your eyes flashed with anger as you turned to face him and although the expression on your face was a serious one, he couldn't help but be mesmerized by the fieriness of it. It was the same expression you had worn the first time you confronted him about his behaviour and unbeknownst to you, that was when he had first started to feel that aching pull toward you.

"What was that all about, Cregan?" you demanded, your voice sharp. 

Cregan's response was unexpected. He didn't offer an apology or a defence of his actions. Instead, he took a step closer to you, his expression intense. Before you could react or voice your pent-up frustration, he kissed you.

It was a passionate, intense kiss that left you momentarily breathless. Your protests were silenced as your lips met his, and your anger dissolved into a mixture of surprise and desire. Cregan's lips were firm against yours, his hands gentle but insistent on your waist.

When he finally pulled away, you were left looking quite dazed and disoriented. Your cheeks flushed, and your heart raced in your chest. Cregan smirked at you, his eyes filled with a blend of amusement and affection.

"Princess," he said softly, "Don't you dare say that you hate me again. It's abundantly clear that you don't."

You tried to form a coherent response, but your thoughts were still scattered from the unexpected kiss. You found yourself at a loss for words, your feelings for the young lord more complex than ever before.

Cregan's thumb brushed gently against your cheek, and he leaned in to kiss your forehead tenderly. 

"Let's not waste any more time pretending, my lady," he whispered. "We both know how we truly feel."

5. I wish I could hate you

The arrival of Lady Alysanne Blackwood and her father brought a flurry of activity to Winterfell. Lady Alysanne was a beautiful and vivacious woman, and her presence seemed to light up every room she entered. As the daughter of an important house, she was greeted with warmth and enthusiasm by Lord Brennard Stark and the other members of House Stark.

You couldn't help but notice the stark contrast in Cregan's behaviour towards Lady Alysanne compared to his demeanour with you when you first arrived. He greeted the Blackwoods with a genuine smile, engaged in polite conversation, and even offered to show Lady Alysanne around Winterfell himself. It was a stark departure from the cold and aloof Cregan you had known at first.

You tried to push aside the feelings of hurt and jealousy that welled up within you. It had been some time since Cregan had treated you with such indifference, and you knew you should let bygones be bygones. After all, you reasoned, Cregan had every right to make new acquaintances and friends. You were still the one he shared kisses with and spoke whispered promises to. 

However, as the days passed, you couldn't shake the feeling of being left behind. Cregan seemed to spend more and more time in the company of Lady Alysanne, showing her the beauty of Winterfell, introducing her to the people of the North, and sharing tales of their homeland.

One evening, as you watched Cregan and Lady Alysanne from across the courtyard, a sense of loneliness and abandonment washed over you. Then came the announcement that turned your blood cold. There was talk around the castle of preparations for a grand wedding. At first, this confused you. Cregan was the only member of the Starks of marriageable age, but he had never discussed something like this with you. And then you realized why, when passing the kitchens late one night, you overheard the scullery maids talking about how lovely a bride Lady Alysanne would make. 

One day, as you walked alone in the quiet gardens of Winterfell, your steps slow and contemplative, Lady Alysanne approached you. You had been lost in your thoughts, unaware of Alysanne's presence until she spoke.

"I must admit, I wanted to see for myself the woman rumoured to be close to my future husband," she said with a smirk.

Your heart sank at the cruel tone in Alysanne's voice, and your voice trembled as you replied, "Your future husband?"

Alysanne nodded, her expression filled with mockery. 

"Yes, Princess. Cregan and I have been promised to each other since birth. It's a marriage that our families have long arranged, for the good of both our houses."

Tears welled up in your eyes, and you turned away to hide your emotions. You felt a crushing weight on your chest, the realization that the man you had grown to care for deeply was bound by duty to another. 

Your voice was barely a whisper as you asked, "How long have you known about this?"

Alysanne's tone was sharp and cutting as she replied, "I've known for a while, but I wanted to meet you before the wedding. I wanted to see the foolish girl who thought she could steal Cregan away from his duty."

Your heart ached with a mixture of sadness and resignation. You had to accept the reality of the situation, no matter how much it hurt. 

Alysanne reached out with a mocking smile, but her touch was far from comforting as she placed her hand on your shoulder. 

"I know this must be difficult for you, Princess, as you are probably used to having whatever your heart desires. But you should have known better. Cregan was never yours to have."

Later that very same day, when the sun had begun to set over Winterfell, casting long shadows across the castle grounds, you were sitting alone on a stone bench, your thoughts consumed by the hurtful encounter with Lady Alysanne. You had been lost in your own misery when Cregan approached, his expression filled with concern.

"Princess, I heard about what happened with Lady Alysanne," Cregan began, his voice gentle. "I wanted to make sure you're all right."

Your heart ached at the sound of his voice, but you tried to ignore him, focusing on the setting sun instead. You couldn't bear to look at him, not now, not after everything that had transpired.

Cregan, undeterred by your silence, took a step closer, "Please, let me explain."

Your emotions, raw and uncontainable, finally burst forth. You turned to face him, eyes filled with tears, and voice trembling with pain. 

"Explain? You don't deserve to give me an explanation now, Cregan. Not after all that has happened between us."

Cregan's expression was one of genuine regret as he reached out to touch your arm, "Listen, please, just hear me out."

You couldn't bear to listen any longer. The words that had been building up inside you for so long spilled out in a rush. 

"You should have told me, Cregan. You should have told me that you were promised to another, that you could never belong to me. You should have told me before you kissed me under the stars, before you spun me around in gilded ballrooms. Before you made me hope for something that wasn't real."

Tears streamed down your face, and your voice broke as you continued. 

"I hate you, Cregan."

For a moment, there was silence between the two of you, the weight of your words hanging heavily in the air. Cregan's face showed a mix of pain and sadness, but he said nothing in response. You yearned for him to tell you that you were wrong. To tell you that you didn't hate him and that he certainly did not hate you and that he would be yours after all. 

He opened his mouth but no words came out. 

I love you.

The words were just on the tip of his tongue but he could not force them out. He could not be selfish enough to give you hope when he was bound by duty. 

There never lived a Stark who broke an oath.

That was what Cregan's father had always told him, and he wasn't about to be the first stark to do so. And so Cregan chose to remain silent and eventually, he walked away, leaving you surrounded by the shards of your broken heart. Your hands came up to muffle the broken sobs that escaped your lips and the tears that streaked down your face were a testimony to your lie. You could claim to hate him all you want but one did not mourn this much for someone they hated. 

You left the very next morning, after a hasty goodbye to the few people you had gotten to know during your stay at Winterfell and with a heavy heart, you directed your dragon toward your true home. You didn't think you could bear to watch him marry Lady Alysanne and it was better for you to leave now with at least some of your dignity intact. 

~ I hate you and I mean it. 

Several years had passed since the painful encounter with Cregan in the gardens of Winterfell. In the intervening years, much had changed. Your mother had taken the throne after the passing of your grandfather, King Viserys and you had been named her official heir. When news of a great war in the North reached the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, Rhaenyra Targaryen, she saw an opportunity to strengthen her alliances and sent her two eldest children, you and Jace, to aid House Stark in the battle, accompanied by their dragons.

With the might of dragons at your side, the two of you made quick work of the war, helping to secure a decisive victory for the Starks. The sight of dragons soaring through the northern skies struck fear into the hearts of their enemies, and soon, the war was won.

In celebration of their triumph, House Stark held a grand feast in honour of the Targaryen siblings. The Great Hall of Winterfell was adorned with banners, and tables groaned under the weight of a sumptuous feast. Nobles from across the North had gathered to pay their respects to the Dragonriders.

You couldn't help but feel a strange mixture of emotions as you walked the familiar halls of Winterfell once more. The memories of your time here, both the joyful moments and the painful ones, flooded back to you. You had changed so much since then, and the scars of the past had faded but not entirely disappeared.

As you and Jace were introduced to the Northern lords and ladies, the atmosphere was one of jubilation and gratitude. The Starks were effusive in their praise, grateful for the Targaryens' aid in securing their victory.

You couldn't help but notice that Cregan was among those present, his gaze fixed on you. There was a tension in the air, a silent acknowledgment of the past and the wounds that still lingered. You had returned to Winterfell as a powerful figure, a dragon rider and an heir to the throne, but the history between you and Cregan remained.

The feast was a boisterous affair, with music and revelry filling the Great Hall. You watched as Cregan hovered about his wife almost constantly, his hand gentle on her protruding abdomen as he guided her about the room. 

As the feast at Winterfell continued, your shock deepened when you noticed a young boy running towards Cregan with gleeful abandon. The boy called out, "Father!" with pure excitement, and Cregan, with a warm smile, hoisted the child onto his shoulders. They paraded around the room, making their way through the nobles who cheered and greeted them.

You watched in disbelief as Cregan introduced the boy to the gathered lords and ladies, his paternal pride evident in every gesture. The sight of Cregan with the child sent a pang of bitterness and resentment through you. You knew that Cregan's marriage to Lady Alysanne had likely produced offspring, but seeing it firsthand was a painful reminder of what could never be between the two of you.

Finally, the little boy and Cregan reached you and Jace. The child's dark, pale freckled skin and dark curls were identical to Alysanne's, but it was his eyes that caught your attention. They were the very same stormy grey eyes that you had noticed on Cregan the first time you had met him.

Cregan introduced the boy with a proud smile. 

"This is my son, Rickon."

Cregan caught your eye and you caught a brief flash of regret pass through him before he schooled his expression into a pleasant grin. He turned back to his son, his face softening entirely as he gazed at him with adoration so tender that it speared right through your heart. 

I hate you, Cregen Stark. I hate you for finding happiness without me. I hate you for not fighting for me. I hate you for your stupid oaths and your stupid loyalties. I hate you. 

You were wise enough to keep your angry thoughts to yourself, but for the first time in your life, you found that you actually meant them. perhaps that made you a cruel and callous monster but you did not care. You hated Cregan Stark more than anything else and wondered, not for the first time, if you should have advised your mother against sending you to help out in the war. Still, you were your mother's daughter and if there was one person you loved with your entire heart, it was her. If helping the Starks win their war secured their support for your mother, then you would bury your heavy heart and do it for her. 

As the evening wore on, you found it increasingly difficult to focus on the festivities. The bitter taste of jealousy and regret lingered in your mouth, a constant reminder of the life that could have been but was now forever out of reach. Whatever Cregan thought of Alysanne, it was clear that he loved their children and very soon there would be even more to cherish if Alysanne's laboured breaths and swollen belly said anything. You couldn't escape the feeling that you were a stranger in a place that had once held such significance in your life. The years had changed you, and Winterfell had changed as well. There was no longer any room for you and you couldn't wait to return home. 

A/N: reblog and comment please, it really motivates me and I love reading yalls thoughts <3

[sansa286]

Thoughts On the Baela x Corlys Conversation in S2E5

This scene has been a polarizing one for the fandom and has spawned many takes, so I'm going to address them and mention what I like about the scene/what makes sense to me and what I thought could be improved.

Takes I Disagree With

"Baela rejecting Driftmark is the writers trying to absolve Corlys of any misogyny that was present in F&B."

No it doesn't. Corlys is still the same man who pimped out Laena and scoffed at either of his granddaughters being named the heir to Driftmark up until Rhaenys died. This is even the reason that Bethany Antonia gave as to why Baela rejects Driftmark - Corlys ignored her and Rhaena for most of their lives and did not consider them viable heirs, she does not want to become the heir to Driftmark out of pity. The scene is also meant to parallel Viserys naming Rhaenyra the heir to the iron throne only after he lost Aemma and their son. These men were willfully misogynistic and ignored the women in their families, and only come crawling to them once they're desperate. Corlys misogyny is well intact rather Baela accepted this offer or not.

"Baela rejecting Driftmark makes no sense, she's nothing more than a Rhaenyra cheerleader."

It does when you remember that she thinks she will be the queen of Westeros one day, something that only became a reality when Rhaenyra offered she and Jace be married. Of course she wants Rhaenyra to take the throne. And another reason that I will elaborate on later. Baela is not merely Rhaenyra's lacky, she clearly disregards her orders back in S1E3 when she chases down Criston Cole.

"Baela Tells Corlys to 'Get Over' His Wife's Death"

No she doesn't. She tells him to stop acting as if Rhaenys was a possession that Rhaenyra snatched away from him. As someone who's been through a lot of grief as of late, I know all too well how people jump to playing the blame game and pointing fingers when someone dies tragically. It is very human, but it's not healthy or the correct way to process someone's death. Especially in this case, Rhaenys volunteered to go to Rook's Rest, knowing that it would be dangerous. No one on Team Black knew that Sunfyre or Vhagar were going to be there, as far as they knew, Vhagar was still patrolling King's Landing. And the Greens themselves didn't even know Aegon was going to ride on Sunfyre. As far as anyone on Team Black knew, Rhaenyra included, Rhaenys would fly to Rook's Rest, burn up Cole and his army, and then be back for supper.

We, the audience, know that Rhaenys turned back twice and knowingly fought to her death, but Corlys doesn't. So I'm not saying that Corlys' reaction here doesn't make sense, because it does, however Baela telling him to not be so quick to blame Rhaenyra isn't some harsh or cruel advice, and I'm sick of Greenies acting as if it is or that Rhaenyra is solely responsible for Rhaenys' death and that Corlys should be secretly plotting to assassinate her or get some sort of retribution. Newsflash: he's not Daemon.

You could even infer that everyone knows that Rhaenys chose to go out this way; Meleys is canonically the fastest dragon, so she could've escaped if she wanted to, as we see in the previous episode.

"Baela and Corlys do not speak to each other like a granddaughter and grandfather would."

Baela and Corlys hardly know each other. Baela spent the first ten years of her life in Pentos, and the last several on Driftmark while Corlys was away at sea. They are relative strangers to each other and these last few weeks have been the most time they've ever spent with each other, and most of that time has been addressing the war. Corlys has routinely only shown interest in whoever the heir to Driftmark is, which was Luke up until now. So no, Baela and Corlys interacting like that makes sense.

Now onto the main issue I have with scene...

Baela's Reasoning In the Show

The one we get, in the show, is lame. "I am blood and fire, Driftmark must pass to salt and sea." I get that the writers are trying to make her seem quippy, but this also unintentionally confirms that Rhaena's biggest concern is 100% right - she is disregarded by her family. If Corlys were to give Driftmark to a granddaughter, why not Rhaena? She was set to marry Luke and inherit it anyway until his death, even Rhaenys recommended it! I can buy that Corlys would offer it up to Baela, as he clearly sees her as more valuable due to her dragon, but the fact that Baela doesn't mention her sister? When they're supposed to be interpreted as having, at least, a somewhat close relationship, and she knows that Rhaena feels as if she is not respected by their family? Either the writers are trying to hint that Baela secretly feels the same as everyone else in regards to Rhaena or they gave her that weird pseudo-poetic line to feed the TikTok editors. Hell, that could've been the reason she gave Corlys - "I will be queen one day, so let my sister inherit what she was already due for" or something like that.

Overall the scene was fine. I'm still quite irritated at the lack of Rhaena being considered, but maybe that's the point and they intend on elaborating on that later. Who knows? We still have three more episodes left, but until then, this is my take on the scene.

[atamascolily]

I want to shed some light (heh) on the use of streetlight imagery in Rebellion, because it's another recurring visual theme (albeit more subtle than some of the others), starting with Homura's transformation sequence:

It's difficult to convey in a still, and I have no idea if it is intentional, but the angle and the framing always gives me war flashbacks to that one iconic sequence in Revolutionary Girl Utena:

(if you know, you know)

Although the background in the first photo is too blurry to make out, it looks like the lights of Mitakihara City in the background, as if we are viewing this from the park where Madoka and Homura have their heart-to-hearts. However, the lamp designs here are different, specifically lacking the old-fashioned wrought-iron filigree:

(oh my god, I just noticed the labyrinth in the middle right, this whole garden is just one elaborate metaphor, isn't it, AAAAAAAAAAAA)

Here's a closer look at them--interestingly, they don't seem to have changed much as a result of Homura's takeover.

We get a better look at the other lamps later on, illuminating a staircase as Homura monologues about witches. The symbolism here is obvious: Homura is descending into her psyche and these lamps are guiding the way.

Gosh, that wrought-iron filigree sure looks like a stylized salamander, doesn't it?

The old-fashioned look is well in keeping with Homulilly's general Victorian aesthetic, as well as Homura's apartment building from the TV series, which has an old-world European look to it in contrast to the shiny modernism of the rest of the city's architecture.

However, when Homura emerges back onto the city streets, the filigree has disappeared. This implies to me that it represents a part of her nature she is not yet consciously aware of, consistent with the other subtle uses of salamander imagery in the first half of the film.

Here, the lights are old-fashioned, but not to the same extent. They fit right in with the dream-like blending of inside and outside in this scene (which Homura does not even appear to notice).

We see the wrought-iron lamps again in the other descent into Homura's psyche in what I call the "Tunnel of Love" sequence. Not only do we get the lamps again, we also get the windows representing salvation/connection to the Law of Cycles/Madoka, scissors, and keys in sealed glass jars.

(As an aside, the blob in the middle sure looks a lot like the famous rabbit-duck illusion, which is an optical illusion famously used as an example of different modes of seeing --"seeing that" vs "seeing as"-- by the German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, which is well in keeping with Rebellion's use of psychological imagery and German philosophy.)

As the original series takes pains to remind us, Homura's name is a homonym for "flame", so it makes sense to me that she would unconsciously gravitate towards flame imagery. These old-fashioned lamps are a more benign, focused version of the apocalyptic conflagration that destroys the city later on.

Note how the streetlights now resemble sewing pins--the primary weapon of the Clara Dolls.

Streetlight imagery also appears in the original TV series, although the focus is less on the lamps themselves and more on all the insects attracted to it (an obvious metaphor for magical girls):

It's fascinating how the same object can represent completely different things depending on context even within the same series.

[sneezyonmain]

OC Post- Araneus Cinderfang

vbrit part two: emo twink edition DISCLAIMER: All of my OCs are actually my friend's and I's DnD characters, used with permission. Some details may be a little confusing as I've taken their standard backstories and modified them to fit a modern fantasy setting. I'll list the class for anyone curious, but it won't come into much use unless they're a spellcaster. CW: Mention(s) of parental abuse, PTSD, anxiety, forced mutation/experimentation, homelessness, nsft themes

(Picrew credit to Brightgoat's Bright's Picrew Hell and Baydews' [BAYDEWS' avatar maker!!] V2)

-------

Name: Araneus CInderfang

Race: Half-elf (Shifter)

Age: 22

Sex: Male

Pronouns: He/Him/His

Sexuality: Bisexual (In denial) (this is a common theme with vbrit OCs, I think he's protecting tbh)

Class: Order of the Lycan Blood Hunter

Height: 6'0

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Red

Basic Description: Araneus is built like a string bean, standing at a decent height while also being relatively underweight. He has perpetual bags under his eyes that he cannot seem to rid himself of, and dark hair that stays messy regardless of how much he tries to tidy it. He stands with a slouch, and keeps his head down. He's got scars and spots on his pale skin, and unnaturally red eyes. He has pointed ears, and spider-like fangs that are only visible when he lifts his lip to reveal them. He looks far more arachnid-like when transformed, which he doesn't do unless necessary and frankly I don't feel like describing it.

Background: Araneus grew up primarily with his father, who was a prominent professor at a university. Through a series of gruesome experiments throughout the course of his childhood, (which I will not elaborate on due to their upsetting nature), Araneus developed a form of lycanthropy. Specifically, his body mutated to include many spider-like qualities, including fangs and extra insectoid limbs that emerge from his body when transformed. He eventually escaped that situation, and spent a long time homeless and in shelters before moving in with a woman named Aria, who later became his girlfriend. He has severe PTSD and anxiety from the event, and since he was already relatively introverted before he became a "monster", he now rarely ever leaves the house.

Personality: He is very introverted, and much prefers to stay inside all day than to talk to people. He is slow to trust people due to his past, but when he does, he is loyal to a fault. Aside from various comics and watching anime, he loves literature, but doesn't have too many hobbies as he either couldn't do them or didn't have the funds until very recently. He's anxious and closed off but longs for friends and companionship. He doesn't think much about romance, since he has other things to worry about, (that is, before he met his girlfriend). When he does attempt social interaction, he has a very dry sense of humor he uses to compensate for how nervous he is.

Snz Info: He hardly ever gets sick, which is one of the few benefits of his lycanthropy. When he does get sick, however, it hits him like a truck, since the virus has to be quite strong in order to impact him at all. He tries very hard to be self-sufficient when it happens, since he's not used to being able to rely on people, but he really just wants comfort and soup. His heightened sense of smell means his nose is very sensitive to perfume and physical touch. He has a lot of rapid-fire, stifled fits that he can't hold back, but they're breathy and quiet.

Fun Facts:

He loves dogs a whole lot

He's Australian

Would call a woman "Mommy" probably

Has a blood kink

Will gladly explain every sex joke in Hamlet to you

Used to have asthma before he was mutated

Has ear piercings

Dresses emo simply because they were the first clothes he saw at the thrift store once he got out of his bad situation

Has a nipple piercing that he got for his girlfriend, Aria

Ironically, he is severely arachnophobic due to trauma.

Still owns a stuffed spider to help him cope

Needs like four weighted blankets to sleep

[dogmotifz]

no no no pleaaaaaaaase say more re: hickey and silna. Because now I'm thinking like they are both "frauds" in a way bc Hickey is Hickey and Silna really doesn't want to be a shaman never commits to the role/can't do it like Hickey can't caulk. They're both in the "wrong" place with the wrong people as neither one should be on these ships! Please keep elaborating. Also. Love the Lestat profile pic.

Ok after thinking on it a while I think it's way more accurate to say that they each have the personality and social standing that the other one needs, rather than just "self recognition through the other" (though I think that's still 100% accurate, wrt them both being failures of a sort in their roles)

Hickey desperately desperately wants to have power, which silna has the potential to have-- ideally, she would have power through her role as a shaman with the ability to control the tuunbaq, and she would have a community of people who respected her, all of which hit hickeys main motivating factors (power, respect, community-- see the mutineers)

Silna, on the other hand, needs hickeys assets; drive, charisma, his follow-through. Look at how Silna, apparently, took several tries to work up the courage/ability to cut her tongue off with her ulu, vs how hickey could do it in 60 seconds flat with his dull knife. Also compare hickeys constant rebelling against authority vs silna... Kinda just rolling over and taking it, when the netsilik hunter tells her to get a hold of herself (this isn't 1:1 comparable to hickeys situation, obviously, but she's definitely very meek compared to him). Hickey has all the attributes ideal for a shaman (at least, a shaman in the early stages of controlling the tuunbaq), but none of the reverence (or inherited ability lmao) needed to actually gain control of the tuunbaq.

At the same time tho I think there's definitely a lot of similarities between the two-- I'm thinking of Dave K's comments about how every character has a moment they switch from an adventure story to a horror story, but how ironically neither hickey or silna have one; they're both in horror stories from the moment we see them. I think they're both incredibly (for lack of a better term) scrappy characters, who're doing everything in their power just to survive on a ship with people who hate them for something immutable about themselves (though this is notably much worse for silna-- nobody ever suggests that hickey be left out on the ice for the crime of being gay). Then there's the million other little similarities between the two that drive me crazy: both operate under assumed/assigned names, both are out of place on the ship, they're the two with the most crying scenes (I think, don't quote me on that).

Tldr; teach hickey inuktitut so he can give a "we're not so different, you and I" speech and silna can curse him out.

[sadfruittheatre]

Loss and Lots of Retcons: The Current State of Affairs and Moving Forward

So, now that things have begun to calm down, I want to talk a little bit more about various retcons and what's going to change, both in terms of this blog and the timeline. This is also a to-do list for me, because I have hella ADHD and get very overwhelmed without some kind of game plan.

So, to get the big thing out of the way, several characters are no longer going to exist and will have never existed. You're going to see the things on this list and go "woah, wait a minute! aren't all these guys like, super important to a bunch of things!?" and the answer is yes, but sometimes things happen in real life that affect the plot and that is just a potential consequence of working in collaboration with other people.

So, the casualties are:

Mara

Flann

Veroa

Kuroza (Fish)

Anzu

Carma and Kone

It's a lot of characters unfortunately, but we still have plenty left.

Cayenne

Bragi

Aneas

Tomor

Eugene

Mirin

Coulie

Dulze

Deeji

Letch

Mille

Mento

The character pages will be updated accordingly.

There will also be some new characters introduced in conjunction to the plot things that have been happening in the background, but I will not be elaborating on all that yet until I iron out this other stuff. But know that I am definitely looking forward to introducing you to these guys and their lovely creators!

But Kateh, I hear you ask, how are you going to have concurrent plot things going on when you have to retcon like, everything??? Well, you see, I'm basically doing my best to keep the overall trajectories of my OCs as close to the same as possible in broad strokes, even if there are different characters involved or some things just didn't happen anymore. Some characters are honestly completely unaffected by this (like Aneas, who wins by staying in his lane and loving his wife). Other characters, namely Bragi, and to a lesser degree, Tomor, need a lot of work done to fix the damage.

As for the art and writing I've uploaded, much of it is probably going to be taken down, because I don't feel comfortable having art up of characters I no longer have the rights to use for a continuity that no longer exists. Some things can be edited in small ways, and if I can salvage it, I will; plenty of other things will stay up, though the context for them is largely going to have to be rewritten to fit the new continuity. I'm definitely bummed that so much of this entire project has to be gutted, but I'm hoping to be able to slowly rebuild things going forward. Honestly not sure if it would be easier to delete and start over, but I'll try to fix things as they are before I do all that.

I do actually have some establishing comics in the works to get us all adjusted to the new vibes, so we can at least look forward to that!

Now, let's talk plot and characters. We've talked a lot about what's lost, but here's what remains.

Now, while there are still a lot of minor details to work out, the broad strokes are as follows:

Bragi's still being sent to Conton City to atone for his stinky boy crimes. However, the big difference now is that for better immersion in the mortal culture, he's staying with a host family, the already overcrowded teacakes house with Dulze and Yamcha. Deeji is his new best friend. #DeejiSupremacy

He's still going to slowly get his shit together until he's forced to confront Aneas and they reconcile. Details are still hella fuzzy as to how that goes down but Aneas and Coulie (and Eugene) remain largely unchanged. Still happily married. #FlowerBudsSupremacy

A lot of the stuff with Mento probably still happened, though the context of Mirin's existence and what led up to Mento's death is gonna have to change wildly to accommodate it. Bragi's existential crisis will definitely have to be adjusted.

The Anzu shit? Didn't happen. Bragi likely remains unstabbed, unless we find another context to stab him in. With that in mind, he's probably going to revert back to his pre-vest design because like, the whole reason for that is because he got stabbed. At least his godtube channel remains alive and shitty. Coulie can still systematically dislike all of his videos.

At the most recent point in the timeline, Bragi's at least a little more willing to open up to people he trusts because Kuroza/Fish isn't there anymore to fuck it up for him by being weird about his trauma. He's still got some trust and vulnerability issues tho.

Tomor needs an overhaul at least in terms of his own trajectory. Part of this is due to the plot things I'm sitting on, part of it is because he lost his comedic foil in the form of Fish. He will definitely continue to cause problems on purpose tho, probably with New!Mento.

The Mento with Mirin goop in her brain is still very much a thing btw. She's so silly and I love her. #MentoSupremacy

Some of this stuff is still subject to change, and whatever does change likely won't be as detailed as it used to be, but we're doing what we can. It's a hot mess right now and it's gonna take a lot of time to fix it, so uh, thanks for bearing with me 👍

[atiming]

It came from the Nightosphere.

This episode being the opener of season 2, nearly coming off the tails of Henchman, really cements the direction Marcy's character ends up taking. Admittedly, Eviction already had a few bits that'd get built upon— namely the being a thousand years old and losing sight of one's moral code; but it's mostly a really mean-spirited introduction. Henchman really picks up the slack and introduces Marcy as a genuine friend to Finn and cements core aspects to her character. She's an edgelord that likes looking cool, and while she's not necessarily evil or malicious, she still has a genuine mean streak to her due to her immaturity (which Heat Signature elaborates upon nicely).

Similarly, It came from the Nightosphere introduces an even bigger and even more overwhelming facet to her character— that is, under her cool act lies a really troubled girl with lots of emotional baggage (understatement of the millennium).

In typical Adventure Time fashion, the way it's presented is cheeky and ironic. The fries song is silly out of context by itself, but the sequence of Finn's beat boxing deflating into a troubled sigh is a great gag to kickstart the episode. The idea that seemingly the central conflict of the song is something as silly as fries getting eaten being contrasted to bombs such as "Daddy, do you even love me? 'Cause I wouldn't know it" is pretty funny on its own, but the fact the first thing Hunson does upon arriving to Ooo is to try to suck Finn's soul, to which Marceline dryly remarks he always does things like that pushes the joke further. He tries to kill her friends constantly, but she cries over the fries. I didn't remember the comedic genius behind the Fries song.

The episode unfolds in a similar comedic fashion. While Finn is horrified over the evil he has unleashed on Ooo and wants to stop him, Marceline remains brattily self-centered, only concerned about her bass or her longing for an actual loving relationship with her father. "I just want my dad to care about me" It's an extremely funny non sequitur.

While Hunson's "evil worldview" and Marceline's inability to be upfront with her emotions are the purported tension between them, I actually appreciate the fact it undercuts the "touching" heart-to-heart of Hunson's "But I do love you!" since it leaves more room to explore the storyline (and I hate Hunson's neglectful ass lol). Furthermore, it strikes as being a genuinely more grounded and emotionally complicated route to have Marceline acknowledge his love as True but still finding having to confront him exhausting and still having lingering resentments.

Overall, a really solid early episode establishing Marceline's character while still being cheeky and refusing to present or resolve the conflict straightforwardly, which would come to be one of AT's bigger writing strengths over time.

[ironvandyne]

Does it ever bother you that Janet Van Dyne is the only big-name Avengers whose past is never revisited or expanded upon? We know everything about Cap, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, Black Panther, She-Hulk, and Hellcat's past, and even Hank Pym got a special one-shot devoted to his childhood and upbringing. But Jan's life pre-Hank is a cypher. We had to find out important details like what happened to her mother from Hank of all people. It's just not fair.

Marvel has never really firmed the spotlight on Janet Van Dyne before 2023 which only took them over 60 years just to get her own solo (even if it was a four issue mini), heck even her step-daughter (who was introduced in 2015) got a solo before her! She may have had a prominent role during the Avengers comics due to her relationship with Hank and how she grew as a character, but her background is always ignored.

We know so much yet so little, even in adaptations such as the MCU and EMH we still don’t get to know more about her besides her romantic relationships. It’s ongoing issue of neglect that truly has hurt to the point she is never marketed enough despite being the FIRST female Avenger. She even was the one who named the Avengers goddamnit! Put some respect into her name.

I am quite happy she’s finally got her solo comic after so long but there is still a lot to go from here. Please don’t let this be a one-time thing and actually invest on what she has to bring into the table because there’s a lot of things that has not been told from Janet’s past that can be interesting to revisit or elaborate. I would love to hear more about her relationship with her parents and her aunt Amelia and how she got invested into fashion or how she met Constance. Hell, a full ongoing for Janet would be amazing and with the perfect writers and artists, it would be a great read all-around.

In summary, Janet Van Dyne deserves more recognition, everyone knows about Iron Man, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, and even Ant Man but never the Wasp. And even if they did, it would be her daughter from the MCU. The lack of attention is purely disrespectful and is just baffling when she is one of the founding Avengers. And she shouldn’t be an interchangeable and disposable character as well (JOSS WHEDON.)

It’s never too late for Marvel to explore more within her point of view, learn more about her past, have more stories focused on her, or hell if Avengers Inc. does well, give her an ongoing for crying out loud.

[beevean]

Hey it’s so called this morning’s anon back with more things to say I suppose…

I supposed I wanted to elaborate on some things, I know you said you didn’t wanna start discourse but I really wanted to elaborate on what I meant by that proshipping comment. The term proship, from what I heard, has gone from let people ship what they want and if you don’t like don’t look to… This person is a disgustingly vile subhuman and their death should be celebrated.

Funnily enough I openly ship problematic stuff, but I constantly over complicate things to prove that I’m still better than ‘those guys’, to say that I have morality and ‘they’ don’t… But it’s so fucking exhausted. My life wasn’t good and moral and pure so why does my art have to be?

I’m sick of fearing I’ll have someone genuinely threaten my life because I cope differently than them. Ironically I used to get mad when people say it was their coping mechanism, calling it a shitty excuse to be a whatever [You can insert all kinds of fun and degrading terms there] and yet… I was doing the same thing.

So yeah… I don’t like everything but I’m realizing that everything has its place and if that makes me a proshipper then fuck it I guess I’m a proshipper

[After reading all those kind messages I wanted some way to reveal myself because surprise you actually know who I am! But I wasn’t sure how to do that without outing myself so openly… I read your Hevor fic and told you about it on Discord, it’s the only thing we ever discussed. So yeah if you manage to figure me out based on that alone then congratulations! Purity culture is ruining my life so bad I can’t even say my own name! ;3]

fdjskfksdngksjdhk talk about efficient secret codes lmao. Yes I understand now 😄

That's pretty much what happened. "Proship" started as a countermovement to the "anti" culture budding around 2016 who were all like "Sheith is actually incest because they're like brothers and that's gross guys!!!!", and at first it meant simply "ship and let ship", but then it got twisted into meaning "someone who enjoys problematic ships/ships with incest, pedophilia and/or abuse", which inevitably leads to "this person has Something Wrong with them and they're a Bad Person who Hurts people like me with their Degenerate Art! Pedo alert pedo alert! PUNISHMENT FOR A THOUSAND YEARS".

The problem is that "enjoys" means a lot of things :^) there is a difference between "aww they're so cute <3", "welp this is a kink now", and "wow this would be incredibly fucked up but I am intrigued to explore this story". But nuance is not allowed, apparently.

(fun fact: I don't really go through proship blogs because I swear they all ship sibling incest. I hate sibling ships lmao, especially when they're wholesome. But of course they're all in the "will accept anything" community, after being pretty much shunned and painted as horrible abusers who deserve to be hurt and worse - and just because I don't want to see those ships, that doesn't mean I think they're bad people who condone real-life abuse. So yeah, proship is not about having all the grossest ships in the world, you can be exclusively into the most vanilla M/F ships ever and still think "yo do what you want I'll respect you from a distance")

I also hear similar stories like yours, of people who twist themselves into pretending to be antis and be morally "purer" than others when in private they were doing the same things they were insulting others for, just with tons of shame and denial. Not judging you and I'm happy when people realize that this behavior is harmful, definitely more than being into the Problematic lol... I'm just disappointed and frustrated that the internet culture has come to this. I reiterate my points about surrounding yourself with friends who don't make you feel like you have to walk on eggshells.

Also real talk: you don't really have to psychoanalyze yourself. Maybe your tastes are tied to an easily identifiable reason, or maybe they aren't or the reason goes too deep to explore without outside help. In any case, it doesn't matter. You don't have to justify yourself in any way, let alone showing to everyone the "I'm Coping With Trauma" badge in the hopes they will forgive you - because it doesn't work. It's never about the mental health of victims, it's about "i feel icky and i don't want to :("

Disgust is not harm. You (general) have every right to be disgusted by something - I myself am not above it :P But it's not a personal attack against you, and it's your responsibility to walk away and coping with your feelings in private.

[americanwh0resstuff]

- Close enough to kiss -

Word count: 917

Kinda fluffy/angsty?????

Your first meeting with Blaine at the scratching post, how he turns you…

- Close enough to kiss -

When my new coworker, Jessica invited (basically forced me) to go out with her, I wasn't expecting a place like this, tons of pale men eyeing up scantily dresses women, fancy drinks and some odd looking food.

When I first moved here I heard a lot of rumours about zombies roaming the streets of Seattle, I guessed it was them playing a joke on the newbie, scaring me and pranking me as some type of hazing ritual.

But now looking around in this place, this prank seems more elaborate.

I got ready fairly quickly as I was trying to stall as long as possible, but after the constant harassment and peer pressure, I gave in.

And now I'm stood in this half bar half brothel, looking around for my lost colleagues, how fantastic... I would just leave, but I caught a ride with Jess and I was definitely not in a state to drive right now.

So instead I took up residence at the bar, sitting on a slightly sticky leather barstool, I wasn't sure if it was sticky from sweat or from spilled drinks but at this point I didn't care. My eyes wandered behind the bar, checking out the liquor selection, before I could make a decision it seems like it was made for me, as a tall blond haired man passed me a glass of whiskey from across the bar.

"Johnny Walker. You look like you need a good drink." He leaned forward onto his elbows, raising his matching glass at me, I stared for a minute before clinking mine against his.

He shot me a tight smile before sipping his whiskey, watching me as I drank mine. "What?" I asked, instinctively wiping my lip, guessing he was staring at some spilt drink, or a mark on my face.

"Just impressive, a pretty girl like you, drinking that without even making a face..." he was smug, too smug, but I still laughed at his response, smirking slightly as I spun the liquor in my glass, hypnotised by the amber liquid.

"You gonna tell me your name?" He cocked his eyebrow at me, leaning in closer once again, trying to hear me over the loud music now blasting overhead. "Y/n, and you?"

"Blaine, Blaine DeBeers, so what's a girl like you doing in here?" The way he stood back with his sleeves rolled up just past his elbows, the top few buttons undone, the way the dark blue fabric contrasted against his pale skin. He was absolutely entrancing, and I couldn't keep my eyes off of him.

"Work thing, they've abandoned me though." I laughed slightly at my own words, peering over my shoulder at the crowd of people, dancing, drinking and causing a pretty huge scene on the dance floor.

He laughed heartily and looked down at me as he stood up straight.

“Now who could abandon a pretty little thing like you?” Oh he was smug.

I cocked my brow at him, biting back a slight smile.

“You’re a bit of a flirt huh?”

“Only with girls like you.” He winked and took another swig, emptying his glass and slamming it down.

I was half disgusted and half intrigued, I had a bad habit of picking the wrong guys, or breaking the hearts of the good guys, damaged goods they’d always end up calling me. But I guess a little fun in a new town couldn’t hurt…

I took the bait.

“So you work here? I hope you do cuz I bet the boss wouldn’t appreciate you raising his liquor collection.” I laughed slightly as I leaned back in, he was now leaned back down to eye level.

“Good thing I am the boss, and I don’t mind one bit.”

Okay so sexy, flirty and a business man, nice catch…

“It’s not exactly the best place i own, but hey, making money so I won’t complain.” His hand ghosted over mine as he adjusted my empty glass before pouring me another drink.

“Not the best place, so you own other places?” I asked curiously, this guy must be loaded.

“I own a few things, one being a funeral home, ironic isn’t it.” Oh how funny more zombie jokes.

After a little while of talking he moved from his place behind the bar to the stool next to me, bottle of whiskey between us, our legs barely brushing against each-other as we spoke. Light touches on the arms, hands lingering slightly too long, I was enjoying this.

As the night went on we didn’t stop talking, we flowed easily, and honestly I was finally glad I came.

Sadly though, Jess came over at just the wrong time, Blaine’s hand resting on me knee and leaned in so close I swear if I moved my head our lips with meet.

“Y/n it’s late we should go.” I flinched slightly at hearing her voice, too enthralled in Blaine’s words to even notice her standing behind me.

His hand slipped over mine, his nail just nicking the skin, I gasped loudly as I realised he’d cut through the flesh, who’s nails are that sharp? Jess was walking back towards our group by then.

He quickly hid the cut by caressing my cheek and pulling me in for a kiss, after that, well I don’t know.

I woke up on a black leather couch, Blaine’s suit jacket thrown over me to keep me warm, him sitting on his desk in front of me.

Oh shit…

[77ngiez-archive]

i am oh so curious about yteh :0 if you don’t mind me asking, what are some of the roleswaps for the main cast? :)

OMG YOU THANK YOU FOR ASKING IVE BEEN WANTING TO RAMBLE ABT IT FOR SO LONG

emiri and sara swap michiru and joe swap sei and kai swap anzu and kanna swap kurumada and kugie swap ranmaru and gin swap hayasaka and mishima swap mai and nao swap real hinako and alice swap sou and shin swap qtaro and reko swap keiji and megumi swap maple and meister swap

i’ll elaborate under the cut so that i. dont clog up ppls dashboards.

emiri and sara swap - woo emiri becomes the protagonist and sara becomes the laughing doll! not too much to say about it (lying)

emiri still has sara’s high survival rate, but sou’s not really that concerned about survival rates as much as he is about candidates/non-candidates, so he has less of a Weird Thing about her than shin does about sara. emiri is a lot grumpier than sara, especially after losing michiru. the main people she directs this grumpiness at are sou and megumi - especially megumi post-chapter one, since she blames her for revealing that michiru had the sacrifice. their relationship finally starts healing up at the end of chapter 2, though. emiri’s reaction to the hallucinations is slightly different from sara’s, but it’s still very unsettling.

as for sara, her floormaster name is gi rinny, a pun on "grinny"! ironically she doesn’t smile or laugh very much - she doesn’t take nearly as much pleasure in the role as miley does. like how in canon emiri was recruited because of her fiance, sara here was recruited because of joe (and to a lesser extent ryoko). asunaro had both of her friends under their thumb, and try as she might the only way to stop asunaro from hurting them was to join them. she’s been with asunaro for a few years now (they got her and joe when they were 15), and helped a lot in creating "kai", so she’s very attached to him! they’re kinda like siblings ehe

michiru and joe swap - michiru pulls the sacrifice card and dies, joe becomes the crying doll.

michiru as a support isn’t too different from joe, all things considered. it’s true that she is a bit more… not weak-willed, but more emotional perhaps? she’s a lot less openly distrusting than joe was, and mostly confides those feelings in emiri. however, while joe was only a little bit suspicious of keiji, michiru DOES NOT trust megumi’s ass. she’s also a lot more earnest in trying to escape with emiri than joe was - both of them are to be honest, they just get attached less easily than joe and sara did. before michiru’s death, she says my own spin on that one line - "i-it’s kind of hard for two girls to say things like this to each other, b-but—! i-i love you, emiri! you’re my best friend!" if you’re thinking this may be gay, you are correct.

joe’s floormastersona is tiad ropp, a pun on "teardrop". he’s even more sympathetic to the participants than safalin, and actively tries to help them out in the most inconspicuous ways possible. he’s still a bit crazy though (cut to the scene with the michiru doll and emiri). like sara, he’s also pretty close to "kai"! they bicker a lot but in the end they care about each other a lot. in this au, joe also manages to salvage "kai"’s consciousness after giving him his positive emotions back, so the floormaster trio can stay a trio! yippee

sei and kai swap - kai died in the assassin battle royale when they were kids instead of sei (also, having been able to grow up and learn about Gender, sei uses they/them)

sei was made to keep an eye on emiri by asunaro! unlike with kai and the chidouins, they don’t really harbor many positive feelings towards her, or so they says hsjsksk . they’ve kinda grown a bit affectionate towards her, but would NEVER admit it. unlike kai, they didn’t fail at being an assassin, and so they’re still an assassin to this day. also, when the dying kai asked sei to kill him instead, sei actually obliged with it! they have been carrying this guilt for a decade! also, being a qkai shipper, i realized that the equivalent to that in this au is sei x reko and i can’t decide if i think it’s cursed or blessed.

kai satou died long ago, but asunaro crafted a replacement for him - ream aster (a pun on "remaster"), the dressup doll. as previously mentioned, aster is close with joe and sara (or ropp and rinny as he knows them), and sees them in a rather familial light. he’s not quite as openly dickish as ranger, but he definitely has his moments hshgshsjksksk. as for the clothes aster wears, they’re kanna’s bucket, kurumada’s bandages, sei’s mask, hayasaka’s tie, and michiru’s glasses! the aster equivalent to rio laizer is ream aker (remaker), and like i said in joe’s section aker actually gets to exist for more than ten seconds! i’m still kinda conflicted on what i want to do with him though.

anzu and kanna swap - kanna and kugie both die in their first trials, anzu and kurumada are siblings

like kanna, anzu’s really torn up by kurumada’s death, and for a while blames herself for it. i’ve said before how emiri is so much gruffer than sara, and how this usually works to her disadvantage - however, anzu ends up associating emiri with kurumada, just like how kanna associated sara with kugie! anzu’s a lot sadder in this au, only just barely becoming the happy clown girl we know and love on the third day of attractions… and, considering her role and the choice we make during the second main game, we all know how that turns out :(

kanna gets to not only be a dummy, but have her sister with her! she does end up dying eventually in the roulette, which is sad, but uh… at least she has kugie there with her? or something? her taking anzu’s role means that she’s the dummy assigned to either q-taro or hinako! if the former, she gets a father figure, if the latter, she gets a close friend. common w in the kanna kizuchi community.

kurumada and kugie swap - kanna and kugie both die in their first trials, kurumada and anzu are siblings

kurumada sadly dies very early on, which i feel bad about since he never got too much screentime in the first place… at least his ass can haunt the narrative?

kugie, on the other hand! in comparison to kurumada, she gets a wealth of plot relevancy. instead of hugging maple to stop her from attacking/kill her, like kurumada did, she hugs meister to comfort him… of course, it’s the same end result :( she’s even more stubborn about the whole "don’t charge me if i’m going to die anyway, save it for the others" thing than kurumada is, except unlike him she doesn’t lie about the reason lol

ranmaru and gin swap - ranmaru is the main support character/emiri’s favorite, gin is the dummy assigned to emiri

ranmaru!!! he sees emiri as a big sister/mother figure, but unlike gin he’s not vocal about it since he’s embarrassed. i really want to keep his crush on sara in this au since it’d be funny, but that would mean him seeing the "doll" that’s clearly working with their kidnappers and thinking "ok but she’s kinda hot tho" so idk. unlike gin’s reason for not taking people’s tokens (him seeing it as being too close to gambling), ranmaru views the sub-game as having some kind of nefarious hidden purpose and as such choosing to abstain. which he was right about! just… didn’t go about it in the right way :p

I FELT SO BAD ABOUT THIS SWAP ONCE I REALIZED WHAT IT MEANT FOR GIN IN THE LOGIC ROUTE. GIN BABY BOY I AM SO SORRY. in logic route his motive isn’t ranmaru’s whole one-sided crush thing, but he kind of views emiri as his mother and as such it’s easy for her to manipulate him. im so sorry gin. in emotion route instead of planning to upload michiru’s ai into his body (since that’d be weird considering she’s a thirty-year-old woman and he’s a twelve-year-old boy) he tries to upload it into her doll instead. doesn’t work out though.

hayasaka and mishima swap - hayasaka dies early on, mishima is a dummy

hayasaka is sort of mai’s teacher in this au! he doesn’t teach her officially, but he tutors her in data entry (since that’s his job pretty much). they have a sort of sibling-y dynamic, which is why he wants to protect her. i’m personally of the belief that mishima knows a bit more about the death game than he’s letting on, although i couldn’t give you a reason why lol, so swapping him with the guy who’s been involved with asunaro made sense to me.

mishima and nao don’t survive their first trials, making mishima a dunmy! he’s assigned to ranmaru, and they’re good buddy chum pal friends. his and nao’s relationship is the same as canon in this au. his presence in the story means being able to unlock some additional info in the office - that of sara and joe! when emiri realizes that sara and joe are rinny and ropp, she’s like… oh shit, i’ve been being a dick to these LITERAL SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLDS. also, why the hell are LITERAL SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLDS our floormasters. did asunaro really have no better ideas.

mai and nao swap - mai and hayasaka are friends, nao is a dummy

like i said in the last section, hayasaka tutors mai on data entry! she’s a medical student as well as a baker in this au, for the reason of I Think It’d Be Neat. she also ends up with the sacrifice in chapter two, and begs emiri to tie the votes for her. massacre ending my beloved………..

nao is very silly here. she stabs reko rip. i only realized a bit after making the list that naoreko and qmai swap so thats kinda funny to me. she has shins hands probably (still working out the details but yea)

real hinako and alice swap - hinako lives through their first trial and alice dies, an imposter alice takes his place in chapter 3 (i’m still working out the kinks with this swap)

(trigger warning for suicide discussion.) hinako lives through her first trial yay! however, like alice, she hides in the locker like a dumbass. her fake name is miyado yamada. she takes up the fake name due to not wanting to be recognized - about a year before the death game, she attempted to kill herself. it didn’t work, however, and she became the face of suicide preventation in japan. she also comes from the same orphanage as q-taro!

i’m still back and forth on the fake alice lore tbh. for now, alice had a secret twin who got separated from him at birth, permanently borrowed by asunaro. this secret twin, whom we’ll call arisu because it’s easy, ends up taking alice’s place as a dummy in chapter 3. with the help of the alice ai, he’s able to imitate him almost perfectly. even reko only notices a few discrepancies.

sou and shin swap - Oh Boy.

sou desperately wanted to be a participant in the death game, but asunaro wanted him to be a floormaster. to that, he said fuck you. he called up shin like "hi shin" "HIYORI YOU’RE ALIVE?!" "shinnnnn do u want to steal my identity :3" "CAN WE GO BACK TO THE PART WHERE YOU’RE ALIVE?!" in the end shin agreed to swap places, simply because sou told him about the 0.0 survival rate and he was not having that. sou erased his own memories so that he could go into the death game completely blind. however this had the side effect of him ending up hating the death game and asunaro and wanting to destroy it. him and anzu have that sibling dynamic, which is sweet until you realize that the chapter 2 main game exists. he steals shin’s identity because his first trial told him about the canidate/non-candidate thing, and so he stole shin’s identity because shin was a canidate!

shin is forced to take sou’s role as the fourth/fifth floor’s floormaster. he’s really grumpy and lackluster about it, but he’s really upset that him being the floormaster also means he’s pretty much doomed to die because WHAT THE FUCK HIYORI YOU NEVER TOLD ME THIS?! he’s really one-sidedly grumpy at sou, who doesn’t really get why because as previously mentioned he erased his own memories.

q-taro and reko swap - reko starts selfish and gets development, q-taro may or may not die

like i said in hinako’s section, her and q-taro come from the same orphanage, so they have a sibling relationship like alice and reko but without the "i hate you now because you’re a murderer" thing. q-taro gets replaced with a fake in the room of lies, leading to the route divergence! if he lives and hinako dies, he mourns not being able to protect her more or tell her what she meant to him. if she lives and he dies, it’s pretty much the same, except hinako has it even worse due to being Actively Suicidal and the one person she cares about on this shithole died because of her. fun times

reko acts more like pre-alice-murder-case reko, simply due to not having changed over time like she did in canon. by chapter 3, she acts more like her canon self. when arisu dies in the ch3 roulette, she talks about how she had a feeling that he wasn’t the real alice. she gets pinned to the target with ranmaru, but is much more willing to sacrifice herself than q-taro is in canon, and takes the first dose of venom.

keiji and megumi swap - keiji fucking dies

in this au, their first trial had a hidden gimmick - if the switch is pressed to take off megumi’s chains, the chains switch to keiji instead. there is a way for both of them to survive, by the switch being pressed again… but megumi doesn’t press it again. keiji fucking dies.

megumi is super sus to emiri and michiru, although she puts up a good front to most of the others. she ends up slowly becoming less corrupt as time goes on, though! and in chapter three her and emiri are actually real allies instead of fake allies. hip hip hooray.

maple and meister swap - maple is in charge of the roulettes, meister is the most powerful obstructor

maple is in charge of the roulettes yay! this means she does NOT have to have a crush on sou, and she does NOT have to die tragically. yippee! she feels very bad for everybody but she is simply doing her job

meister also doesn’t have a crush on anybody since he is a grown-ass adult and that’d be weird. instead he’s coded to see shin as a son. he usually acts like regular meister but his emotional state does fluctuates the same way maple’s does in canon.

…that was really long i am SO sorry. autism 💥

[glon-morski]

After months (years?) of tumblr inactivity, I am finally back (we'll see for how long, though ^^'). What brought me back? The need to talk about FF7 Rebirth, that's what. Figures it would take a brand new obsession to get me back to gushing on tumblr LOL

As the game only came out two weeks ago - MAJOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

There is a lot - and I mean a lot - I could talk about regarding Rebirth, and especially its ending. There will probably be a massive meta coming up on how I interpret what happened in it in detail another time, so look forward to that! But this time, I'd like to focus on a different part than the most obvious "so... what happened to Aerith?" Namely, what I think is being set up here for Part 3.

Going back in time a bit, FF7 Remake already ended in a way that kinda-sorta promised deviation from the OG - an idea that was welcomed by some, and despised by others, as these things always go. Those who never played the OG obviously wouldn't have as much sentimental attachment to it as those who did and are "long-time fans", but even among this second set, there were those who would prefer a 1:1 remake with no changes to the story, and those who were looking forward to some things going differently.

At first glance, Rebirth listened to those who yelled for no changes. Zack should not join up with the party. Aerith must not survive. The OG story must remain largely untouched. And for better or for worse, Rebirth seemed to do just that save for a few rearrangements here and there (like the fact we skipped Rocket Town's first visit altogether for example) and some additions that didn't so much change the story, as they expanded it and tied some lose ends from Remake. But was it really all it did? Did it not set up for part 3 to possibly break free of the OG script as Remake already indicated might happen?

I think it did, in more ways than one. I think the last leg of the game is, in a very meta sense, the devs telling the players "we gave you what you wanted, and now we'll do what we want". Allow me to elaborate.

To start, let's once again look at how the "multiverse" works here. This is not the kind of multiverse we usually see in Western media, or at least not yet. Its creation began with the destruction of the Whispers in Remake - the destruction of Fate and the Planet's iron hold on the plot of the story. Instead of the Planet, it is now the characters choices that shape the story, and since they can make different choices, each one always creates a branch leading to a different world and a different outcome. We've seen that with Zack, as the devs promised he would be the one to show us what the world in Rebirth is governed by. But while the Whispers' destruction happened in the Singularity, a place outside of usual space-time, Rebirth reveals that the effects did not, in fact, affect the past, or at least not much.

I can already feel your skepticism here. What am I talking about? Zack still survived and that's a change in the past, isn't it?

Well technically, yes. But there's something very interesting about the whole thing.

First of all, how did Zack survive? Unlike what the rules of different worlds clearly are later on, it wasn't a stroke of luck, a different possibility or any conscious choice he made that affected the outcome. No. When he talks with Biggs about his last stand and his survival, he felt "wind" and we, the players, see the Whispers interfering so that one bullet grazes his cheek instead of hitting him dead between the eyes. And interestingly, it's the only time in Rebirth that we see Whispers as they were in Remake. Not the black ones with a creepy white glow under their hoods that Sephiroth controls. Not the white ones that clearly have something to do with Aerith. The regular, gray Whispers of Fate. (Incidentally, this is also one of the first times we see the rainbow-color-effect that later gets associated with the creation of a new world. More on that later.)

It was not chance or any conscious choice that saved Zack. It was the Planet, presumably right before Fate got nuked. Why? We can only speculate based on what we saw in Rebirth, but my bet is a last ditch attempt to raise the Planet's own chances at survival despite no longer being able to guide the story and characters on the known path that would lead to... well, maybe not a "happy ending", because there's plenty of tragedy incoming, but at least an ending where the Planet survives, humans do as well and Sephiroth is largely taken care of (even if he keeps coming back and annoying people LMAO).

Here's where Zack's survival becomes interesting in how it's handled in Rebirth. In your usual multiverse (at least the way we know them in the West), you would expect this to have a butterfly effect that would, in sum, amount to "Remake can't happen as we've seen it" because Cloud is no longer alone, no longer wakes up, doesn't meet Tifa or the rest of Avalanche and thus wasn't there for the first reactor bombing. But... that isn't the case. We see this already in the beginning of the game, when Zack sees the news of the collapsed express way. It becomes obvious to us, players, that this is right after Remake, and the troopers remark that "one suspect is missing" - i.e. Cloud.

This is something that shouldn't be possible, because Zack sees this news report pretty much as soon as he enters Midgar. Except... Zack died at the end of September [ ν ] – εγλ 0007. The first reactor bombing was in December [ ν ] – εγλ 0007. The end of Remake was somewhere mid-December [ ν ] – εγλ 0007, as we know everything in it only really took a few days, a week or two at most. Even if we assume it took Zack a while to drag himself and Cloud the remaining way to Midgar in the state he was in, it's difficult to believe it would take him a whole-ass month (+/- a few days). He wasn't that far from Midgar at that point. That was the whole tragedy of it.

But then that would mean that somehow, for some reason, Zack skipped ahead in time. Which he also seems to indicate even if he doesn't realize that's what happened. "One minuted, I'm outnumbered. The next, I'm alone." If we assume the Whispers saved him and something somehow made him (and his version of Cloud) skip a month, that would make sense. There would be no Shinra troopers in that spot a month later. And that something might have been either the Whispers themselves, or a side-effect of the Singularity (again, singularity is a point that warps space-time outside of its usual norms and is, in a way, outside of it). Similarly, Biggs "miraculously teleports" from the Sector 7 Support Pillar to the orphanage (since nobody can tell him who brought him or how he got there, that seems to be the implication). One of them travels in time and skips a month ahead, the other remains in the correct time, but skips in space to a different place. Similarly, Biggs's recollection of his survival is also full of the "new world rainbow effect"... but the interesting thing is that despite how it seems to work later (one choice leads to one new world), they both end up in the Terrier world. There was no butterfly effect. The past didn't change. And yet these two men, who should both have died, meet in the same space and time, both remembering their miraculous survivals.

If you're still not convinced, here's another thing: as Marlene points out, Zack was still not there in November or the beginning of December when the bombings happened. And they still happened. We know this because Biggs still knows Cloud as the "badass mercenary" . He still remembers meeting him for the first bombing, even if his memories are getting weird. ("How long ago was that again? [laughs] Weird. My internal clock's busted." "Yeah. Mine too.") And yet, Cloud was not on the express way when everyone else from the party was. He was looked for, but not found. He didn't appear anywhere afterward. There are no two Clouds in this world. There is only the mako poisoned Cloud Zack brought to Midgar. It's almost as if the Planet wanted to save him from being taken by Shinra in this weird world so it still had the Champion that can beat Sephiroth in this off-shot world, too; so it saved Zack to achieve that. (Why did it pick Biggs, though? That we don't know yet. Given his fate in one of the worlds, he almost seems to have been brought back just so the devs can kill him again, but hey, that was only one world, right?)

So. We have a mutliverse that starts off with two worlds. The world of OG/Remake (the "Beagle Stamp" world, where the main party remains) and the world where they lost against Sephiroth on the express way but Fate/the Whispers pulled a couple last strings before it/they disappeared (the "Terrier Stamp" world). But it doesn't remain at only two worlds. We later see a world in which Stamp is a Pug, a Shiba and a Spitz (I assume one of the larger breeds of German Spitz, though I'm by far not a dog breed expert LOL). Of note is that two of these words are Zack's, created by his own choices - the Pug, where he went after Biggs to reactor 6, and the Shiba where he couldn't decide where to go and who to save because he wanted to save Biggs, Cloud and Aerith, so he went to the church first. I assume the world in which he went to Hojo is the Terrier world, but we can't be sure for certain. [edit: Actually, we can. When Zack is pointing out to himself which road leads where in the tunnel, there is a Terrier Stamp drawn on the wall behind him.] As for the German Spitz, this is the world where Cloud and Aerith have their "dream date", and as far as we can tell, Zack is not alive (or at least not around) in this world. It's either that, or he's went off somewhere else entirely, and apparently so did Marlene and Elmyra. But it's not any of the worlds we've seen Zack in thus far.

(I can already imagine you wondering what any of this has to do with "the devs telling us they gave us what we wanted and will now do what they want". Bear with me a little longer. I'm getting to that.)

The particular Spitz World is important for two reasons. On the more obvious side, it's where Cloud gets a working White Materia from Aerith so that Rebirth's main Aerith can cast Holy. On a more subtle side, it shows a limitation to how far this multiverse can go, because in that world, none of Cloud's choices matter. There isn't a world in which Cloud gave Aerith a hair ornament, a world where he gave her a bracelet and a world where he gave her a pendant. There isn't a world in which he chose to pick the different snacks at the food stall. No matter what he chooses, he gets steamrolled into a fourth option, as if the world itself rejects his choices because he's technically not a part of it. He belongs in a different world.

And as we later find out, he can make a difference and create new worlds there. This is exactly what we see when Cloud attempts to save Aerith and when we see him parrying Sephiroth's blow to save her. Remember how I mentioned the "rainbow effect" being indicative of a new world being created? That scene is full of it... right up until Jenova's interference starts playing up.

So. Here we finally are at what I was trying to get at: the devs giving us the message that "they gave us what we wanted". For those fans who wanted Aerith to die, well, they now got to see it in high res. She died. There is a world in this multiverse in which she died. That's the world of the OG. That remained unchanged as they wanted. But... I do not believe this is the world we're in at the very end of Rebirth, nor the world in which Part 3 will take place.

Take another good look at the Pug-Stamp World. More importantly, listen to Zack's lines. Every single line of his in this particular world makes as much sense for him to say as it is a meta-commentary on things. "Fate has a twisted sense of humor, and I'm always the punchline." - this is Zack's character and the summary of the plot of both CC and his appearance in Rebirth to a T. "Well, I'm sick of its bullshit. This is my life! I make the rules!" - I don't know about you, but this really feels like the devs saying "this is our game. We make the rules." Couple that with the back and forth of Aerith's death and the final message at the end of the game: "No promises remain at journey's end", and that message only seems to be driven home even further.

Fans wanted Aerith to die? Well, she did. In one world. The OG world.

Fans wanted Zack to get out of Aerith's way because she's supposed to have moved on? Well, he did. In one world. The world where he asked Marlene about Aerith's feelings for Cloud, got a childish response that still hit him hard and took Aerith's ribbon - which was basically her one memento of him - as if to remove everything that could remind her of him, and himself, from the equation. The world in which he went to Hojo.

Fans wanted Zack to still die? Well, he did that too! Arguably in more worlds than one, even! The world where he went to Hojo for sure, and possibly the world where he went after Biggs and jumped into the dried-out reactor.

The devs have given the fans who screamed for no changes all that they wanted. They kept all the promises from the OG and not changing things too much and then some. Now, no promises remain. Now, unlike Remake where it was still difficult to picture, there is a very real chance that the main party (and the main story) is no longer the OG world, but the world Cloud created when he saved Aerith. Now, the devs can do whatever the Hell they want. This is their game. Their story to tell. They make the rules.

And honestly? As far as I'm concerned, I hope they go for it! I already know the OG game. I can always replay it (or failing that watch the cutscenes or a let's play on YT) if I want the "original experience" and original plot. So can everyone else, really. I don't need for the story of the trilogy to be a one-to-one recreation with no major changes. Changes is what makes it interesting in the first place. The changes and the possibilities. Like Aerith surviving. Like her reuniting with Zack. Let them have a happy ending where they both survive. They honestly deserve it. And personally? I hope they get it, too.

[shock-micro]

Pokémon Prophecies: Genesect

I said a bit earlier that I had an idea for a Legends game set in a future Unova. Let's elaborate on that, shall we?

Why center it around Genesect?

Because Genesect, in this, is only the first of its kind.

Let's set this in the far future, after some terrible war has come and passed, in a post-post-apocalyptic type setting. Humanity lives in these dazzling cities, and Pokémon are... not the same. All but the most hardy of biological species were wiped out, and in their place, are two types of Pokémon.

Iron-Paradoxes- now given regular names, as they're just normal Pokémon in this era- and "Genesis" forms, resurrected forms of Pokémon long lost, given new technological grace to help them survive in the new environment.

So, if you're reading this far in, you've probably already played Legends: Arceus. So, you should know the format: Find new area, complete a quest, unlock the area's ride Pokémon, complete another quest, quell the area's Noble, and catch more Pokémon to rank up and prove yourself worthy of entering a more dangerous area.

Each of the rides you obtain is a new paradox- maybe even direct reflections of the Legends ones, like a paradox Braviary for gliding. And the frenzied Nobles? Well, those could be replaced with the new Genesis forms, something having gone wrong with their cybernetics.

Turns out, each of the Genesis forms were altered by a corrupted form of the Drives that change Techno Blast's type, and so, say, a Genesis Weezing that was supposed to clean the air actually did quite the opposite, or a Genesis Staraptor caused a great blizzard due to a Frost Drive causing it to generate snowy gales with every wing-flap.

Each area could be like spiraling deeper into the heart of Unova, seeing how old cities grew and what became of the smaller towns, until you reach the former site of the Entralink at its center. Now, instead of the great Entree, there stands a skyscraper that pierces the heavens, in the center of the new capital city, "Genesis".

In terms of how this all ties in with the version differences between Black and White, we can reconcile that very cleanly with the Entree being destroyed. The two realities collapsed into each other, with Black's world winning out in most aspects, though some legends still tell of a time when and a world where a great forest could be found at the site of Black City.

I feel there's a good bit of stuff you could do, with a post-post-war Unova. Unity Tower, the former tallest tower in Unova, could have been demolished in the war, replaced with a memorial and a message of peace. The story itself wouldn't be dark, it'd stay light-hearted and maybe even uplifting, but things like this could be an interesting way to set the stage for why the Pokémon world is the way it is now. People have rebuilt, they're living their lives alongside Pokémon as they always have, there's just one somber note in the now-distant past of a time where the world was anything but united.

Nature could still be found throughout Unova, but there would be a lot less closer to its heart. I have a very slight idea of why, which could potentially involve Unova getting its very own Great Crater.

Let's get back to that first question I posed. Why Genesect? As I said, Genesect is simply the first of its kind, but there's been no trace of it for years. It was last said to be found in the heart of Unova, at the former site of the Entree. Finding the living form of Genesect could be the key to understanding why the new Genesis forms have been going wrong, when poring over ancient blueprints has revealed nothing.

So, would this be an interesting idea? Let me know! I know GameFreak would never do something like this, but hey, a robot can dream.

[doorrobloxstuff]

Lore: Ambush and Rush + Their kids (not including rooms gang)

Rush (Its/Its)

Fluffy RUSH Fluffy RUSH!! Has a big mound off fur that trails around it like fog/smoke.

The silly to Ambush’s serious. That big smile is often genuine.

ITS SMILE IS A FAMILY TRAIT!!! LIKE.. HALF OF ITS KIDS HAVE IT.

Silly Boston accent “Hey!! I’m walkin here!!”

Occasionally needs to be brushed but doesn’t like it. Also all that spare fur goes to Timothy because it knits.

Has cartoony-ish hands.

Impulsive as heck.

Actually pretty good friends w/Seek tbh

Mouth filthier then a gutter.

HATES BUGS HATES HATES HATES THEM once had mites and needed to be shaved.

Frequent napper and sleeper extraordinaire.

Has..memories that it can’t fully recall/ remember, but still experiences hypervigilance + a bit of anxiety from.

Can’t really remember much of its past at all and that’s a great source of frustration for it.

Really likes food and can be swayed with it.

Ask it to find out more stuff i'll update this later.

Happily married to Ambush and parent to Window, Dupe and the rooms gang.

Ambush (It/Its)

Sorta same accent as Rush but Mafia-ish "Ice em boys" kinda vibe.

Less fluffy and more do just h a i r y and wirey static mess that it keeps much more well kept then Rush does.

Steps are murderously silent and loves to sneak up on people.

Out of the two, it’s the more tactical and calculated.

Also pretty messed up by something but refuses to elaborate like Rush.

Definetly more experienced in the hunting field then Rush is and it frequently gets into small competitions with it.

Rue 🤝 Ambush: Parents with chronic pain. Ambush has serious jaw OR back pain that just flares up sometimes and it can leave it pretty cranky.

Is medicated though so it ain’t often.

‘Rush’s kisses are the cure <3’

Has a tail!! It’s sorta siren-like but unlike Depth it’s much more sharp and bladed and has fluffy tips that Rush likes to playfully bite or tug when teasing/flirty.

Ambush’s ancestors come from a reeeeally king lineage of swimming/watery entities.

Siblings with Depth!..oh..she’s missing.

Still has paintings of it..though it’s hesitant to talk to people about it.

Married to Rush and parent of Sally/Window, Dupe + Rooms gang. They’d have more but their energy is depleted-so..

Window/Sally (It/Its)

HOLLY SHIT SALLY GOT A FUR MULLET

Well sorta, it’s like that patch of fur going down it’s body like a little cheetah does.

Femby <3 Rush and Ambush are so proud when it came out!!!

Has two names due to being a femby too. Dupe also wanted two names and that’s how Dupe got its nickname. :)

Impulsive like Rush

Got Rush’s infamous smile like it’s siblings.

Rush’s lil girl fr

Likes to watch people through windows like a lil weirdo.

Also likes to float in the hotel pool and pretend it’s dead. Scares the ‘everloving SHIT’ out of its parents.

Also has a little tail that’s sorta like a stingray’s but no venom yet. (Yet)

Twins with Dupe.

Wants to heal ppl so it hangs around the infirmary. Actually getting really skilled.

Doesn’t hunt yet though and mostly just sticks to warning it’s parents.

(Duplicate) Dupe. (It/Its)

Has soft fur like a little kitty.

L o n g and stretchy like a cat too.

Immense fear of water but ironically probably have fur that if fluffed up will make it float.

Artistic!! Face is covered In paint or slime or blood just there’s something on it’s face always.

Arts and crafts are the way to its heart.

Has lil paw-like gloves that can turn into straight up talons.

Sneaky like Ambush and actually really clever.

Loafs and purrs like Rush.

Also has Rush’s smile :)

When it’s parents are either mad or scared they say it’s full name usually. “DUPLICATE!!!!!” “Uh oh-“

Likes to play pranks a lot.

Has a little crush of Screech???? It’s complicated but they are most just friends 4 today.

Once bit Snare and made it cry and then Snare bit it back and then all their parents came running.

Fun fact, the rooms gang would absolutely deck the everliving shit out of anyone who’d try and harm their siblings.

Rush also had a crush on Ambush they were both kids. <3